No, I am not writing about the Maoist movement. That is the “Red Menace”, not the Yellow
Dilemma. If you indeed thought I was
writing about Chinese Communism, you might be just a little bit racist.
The yellow dilemma to which I refer is a question of physics
and you know from previous posts that generally I make stuff up as I go
along. If that is your assumption for
this offering, you are dead on. Now, to
set the stage:
We all learned back in the third grade that there are three
primary colors; blue, yellow and red.
All other colors are the result of these three mixed together in some
way, or are shades of the primary colors achieved by adding white (to lighten)
or black (to darken). This was presented
in art class as a matter of dogma and no further discussion was deemed
necessary. Applied physics, the academic
discipline that truly defines color, was considered too advanced for eight-year
olds.
These statements are easy enough to test. Using any color medium that can be blended (I
would recommend liquid food coloring) try this experiment. Put a few drops of blue food coloring into a
glass of water and the result is blue water.
Add in the same number of drops of yellow and the result is green (green
is a secondary color). Food coloring is
manufactured in green, but as you can see it is for convenience only as the
color can easily be produced using blue and yellow. The same holds true for orange, which is a
combination of yellow and red. If you
doubt this, try any combination of colors and see if you can produce blue,
yellow or red. It is impossible because
of their primary nature.
You might ask, at this point, “Dale, why is this so?” To which I would respond, “You weren’t paying
attention to the Aug. 22nd post, (How or Why?) were you?” We
know that this is not a why question
but a how question. “How does the
physical nature of light result in one’s perception of color?” Well, I don’t know… it has something to do
with the wavelength of the energy of the source of the photons to which our
optic nerve responds. It is way over my
head, but I digress.
Now, to the dilemma:
My dad was an avid amateur electronics buff. Spare time would find him out in the garage
tinkering with some radio or television set abandoned by some previous owner as
un-repairable. His first “new”
television purchase didn’t occur until I was thirteen. While I did not share his talent or passion,
I did stand at his shoulder asking why a lot (we now know this was the wrong
question) because it was more (marginally) interesting than the homework I was
avoiding. Amid the countless facts I
have not retained that he shared with me, one that I did internalize is that a
color television produces a picture by illuminating the screen in response to
the electronic transmission in combinations of three colors; red, blue and
green.
Whoa, Nelly! Red,
blue and green? That must be a misstatement. “Dad, you said red, blue and green. Certainly you meant red, blue and yellow.”
“No son, I know what I said and I know what I meant. There are three electron guns inside the
picture tube (take my word for it youngsters, back in the day televisions
operated by streaming electrons at a phosphorous coated screen inside a huge
vacuum tube, there were no plasma or LCD TVs) and each gun fires electrons at
phosphors that are red, blue or green.
The combination of those excited phosphors creates the colors you see on
the screen.”
At this point you are
feeling one of three ways; excited because you sense a challenging mystery,
confused beyond belief, or on the verge of slipping into unconsciousness from
boredom. If you are in group three, just
let yourself go, this isn’t going to get any more exciting. You can go on believing what you see when you
watch Real Wives of Beverly Hills are
the lives of little people who live in your television.
For the thinkers among you, you are probably feeling the
stirrings of conundrum. Let’s pursue
this rabbit down the hole and see what kind of cake is on the table.
“If blue and yellow make green, and the television makes
only blue, red and green dots (the aforementioned phosphors) how does the
television create yellow?” If that is your question, you are a thinker. If your
question was, “What time is True Blood
on?” you should have taken the nap option. If your question was, “Why does the
television make yellow?” I give up. The
answer to that question is between you and your god.
Now, if you expect to find the answer to the question
residing in this paragraph, then you don’t really understand the definition of
the word, “dilemma”. I don’t know the
answer, and I have presented this query to many people far smarter than I
without success, which is why I am writing this in the first place. So, dear followers (those of you still
awake), if you know HOW a television makes yellow with only red, blue and green in
its color quiver, I do hope you will write and explain it to me. If you do, and I can understand it, I will
share the seemingly miraculous details with my readers and assign all credit
for superior understanding to you.
***
This week’s punch line: “Why the long face?”
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